There were by far lots of remarkable and outstanding writers in the 19th century. However, Charles Dickens was most notably one of them amid. The Charles Dicken’s artistic wealth, as well as, real-life experience that was acquired by the hardship he went through his life...
“Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” quote by one of the most influential author of English Victorian era, English novelist, Charles Dickens, who wrote numerous highly acclaimed novels....
Lifelong Memories Springing from First Impressions In all aspects of life, one must cooperate with others in order to succeed, but the successfulness of all relationships and social interactions may simply boil down to one’s “first impression.” In “David Copperfield,” Charles Dickens explores how first...
Charles Dickens, a prestigious novelist, changed many lives through his influential writings. As the creator of some of the most well-known literary characters in the world, Charles Dickens was, and still is, considered one of the most distinguished writers of his era. However, although he...
The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was a time of newfound social freedoms. New inventions and scientific discoveries allowed for faster and cheaper production of goods. Manufacturing processes created jobs and fostered the birth of new industries. For the first time ever, people believed in...
Have you ever tried stepping up, making a change in your own life? Everyone is scared of taking chances and making differences in their lives. Scrooge, the main character of Charles Dickenss novel, The Christmas Carol, is no different. Scrooge is an old man who...
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens qualifies as a classic as it presents everlasting messages related to justice and sacrifice that can be implemented in modern day society. Justice is interwoven throughout the story, including through trials and court systems, as well as...
Victorian literature is over-populated with orphans. The Bronte sisters, Trollope, George Elliot, Thackeray and Gaskell all positioned orphans as leading characters in their novels. This trend continued into the Edwardian period, as Frances Hodgson Burnett created the orphaned protagonists Colin, Mary, and Sara. While it...
Many people have experienced a close relationship before, whether in the form of family, friendship, or falling in love with someone. From modern popular culture, people have been taught that love conquers. What it is that love is conquering is a variable that differs in...
Throughout the novel Great Expectations, numerous meals which have symbolic resonance repeatedly take place. This essay will argue that the meal in the novel is a recurring motif with three primary functions. Firstly, they are indeed ceremonies of love or dark manifestations of the absence...
Charles Dicken’s Bleak House is considered one of the most complex and greatest novels of the English language. The novel has many characters and sub-plots being told by two different narrators. This 750-page novel satires the English judicial system, which helped promote legal reforms in...
Like Christmas morning itself – when each present represents a discrete mystery, separate from the last – the Christmas Carol is divided into a set of episodes. The book’s chapters are episodic, with the duration of each spirit a single episode. Within each chapter, there...
Inventor and scientific pioneer Albert Einstein once commented that “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” Though he was not referring to the industrialization of England during the nineteenth century, his sentiment was echoed by many during the Victorian Age...
We would always look in the darkest places for monsters: under the bed, in the closet, out in the woods where light could never penetrate the trees. We would always let our imagination wander to depict creatures that replicated hairy beasts with angry fangs and...
I. If there is one word that sums up the pervading atmosphere of Little Dorrit, it is claustrophobic. From the very first chapter, the reader is inducted into a world primarily made up of rigidly enclosed spaces; every level of the novel is in some...
In the 1861 novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens tells the story of a poor English boy named Pip who faces a number of complicated situations and characters on his way to becoming a gentleman. Dickens’ writing style, while indicative of the time period, is notable for...
“I wear the chain I forged in life… I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will, I wear it.” Jacob Marley’s words allude to the harrowing impact that...
“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts” (9) pronounces Mr. Thomas Gradgrind in the opening line of Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times. Gradgrind employees this utilitarian philosophy in his schoolhouse and repeatedly reminds the reader that there is...
“Tell me your dreams for a while and I will tell you what you are really like.” Written by E.R. Pfaff in 1868, this proverb posits dreams as authentic manifestations of an individual’s identity and character. It makes two conclusions: 1) dreams are a very...
This essay will focus on the collapse of William Dorrit (Bk 2, ch 19) and examine William’s imprisonment to self-deception in this passage as a consequence of his moral debts to society and Amy, what effects this has on his character in the novel as...
Christopher Ricks poses the question, in his essay on Dickens’ Great Expectations, “How does Pip [the novel’s fictional narrator] keep our sympathy?” (Ricks 202). The first of his answers to this central inquiry are: the fact that Pip is “ill-treated by his sister Joe and...
“Bad words don’t exist, but words with bad intentions behind” – Roberto Fontanarrosa The characters, plot, setting, action, and content are all important elements of a drama play. There are characters that dominate and make every single drama, play, film or any form of literature...
“These are but the spirit of things that have been.” The metaphorical words of the Ghost of Christmas Past are typical of Dickens’ melodramatic writing style. Set in Victorian England, a time rife with greed and social stratification, Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’unveils his...
In Charles Dickens’ literary satire, Hard Times, geometry–especially that of squares and circles–serves an important thematic function. The “man of hard facts,” Thomas Gradgrind, has a “square forefinger,” “square wall of a forehead,” and a “square coat, square legs, square shoulders.” (11) The very schoolroom...
In his 1987 study The Way of the World, literary scholar Franco Moretti states that the Bildungsroman “stands out as the most obvious of the (few) reference points available in that irregular expanse we call the “novel””. Indeed, while the reader may be unfamiliar with...
“Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.” This quote, often attributed to Einstein, is actually said by many physicists and writers – the oldest confirmed being Ray Cummings in a short story. However, Dickens’s novels have redefined the interpretation of this quote...
Great Expectations is the account of a young boy’s transition into adulthood as Pip, the central character, searches for contentment. Born into no particular wealth or distinction, he may have lived wholly satisfied with his modest pedigree had it not been for his association with...
Jose de las Luz y Caballero once said “As the fruit ripens, so does the man mature, after many rains, suns and blows.” Throughout the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the protagonist Philip Pirrip also known as Pip, undergoes many changes from when he...
‘A Christmas Carol’ was immediately popular in Victorian England and soon, the rest of the world. It became a cultural icon, sparking a tradition to be read every Christmas Eve in many households. The relevance of the novella, even in the 21st century is testament...
In writing Oliver Twist, it is clear that Charles Dickens’s main literary objective was to expose the plight of the poor in Victorian London. The story of Oliver is comparable to other Victorian novels, such as Jane Eyre, in its strong didactic message regarding the...
February 7, 1812, Landport, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Died
June 9, 1870, Gads Hill Place, United Kingdom
Occupation
Writer
Notable Works
The Pickwick Papers
Oliver Twist
Nicholas Nickleby
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Little Dorrit
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Quotes
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
Date
7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870
Activity
Charles Dickens FRSA was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
Works
Among Charles Dickens’s many works are the novels The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), and Great Expectations (1861). In addition, he worked as a journalist, writing numerous items on political and social affairs.
Style
Dickens’s writing style was heavily detailed. He used exaggeration in description to imply character traits. He was fond of metaphor, simile and frequently repeated words in a sentence to emphasize a phrase.
Legacy
Charles Dickens' legacy was using his novels and other works to reveal a world of poverty and unimaginable struggles. His vivid descriptions of the life of street children in the city, workhouses and Yorkshire boarding schools lead to many reforms.
Quotes
“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”